


Separate Ways

by mcgarrygirl78



Series: Feels Like Heaven [21]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Drama, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 20:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6440170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whatever that one thing he’d done to get luck like this later in his life, Ed was grateful to have done it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Separate Ways

They walked down the street holding hands as afternoon turned into evening. They'd gone to see a movie and had been debating about whether to have an early dinner or go back to his place and get creative when his phone interrupted. Ed carried two phones at all times and this was his NYPD issued phone. Even though he thought about it, not answering it wasn’t truly an option.

“Tucker.” He looked at Liv and raised both of his eyebrows. She suppressed a laugh. “Yes. What? What! You have got to be kidding me? Is he dead?”

That question made Liv stop in her tracks. That was not a good question and somewhere in the city a situation was less than ideal. She hoped no police officers died today. She walked with Ed into the doorway of a recently closed shop. He needed to give the phone call his full attention even though his arm was still protective around her waist. She loved that feeling and leaned her body into his.

“So it happened in The Bronx but the cops were from Queens? And his partner did what? No fuckin way, Cole. I don’t want to hear that rookie shit; I am so tired of rookie shit. Who died? I thought you said someone died.

“OK, OK, and it was three cops. Who’s the third cop? Jesus. In the middle of the damn day? Wow, this guys has balls the size of Jerusalem. Who got the initial call? Oh shit, yeah I know Macready out of the four seven. 

“OK, right. I’d have to get to 1PP first. Have they lawyered up or asked for reps? Jesus, OK, OK Draper, I hear you. 1PP, the Bronx, and then Queens. Not like I had anything going on today or anything. Oh God, was it medium rare? 

“I sympathize now…a little. Is the Bronx still investigating or…of course they dropped it in our laps. The less toes I have to step on, the better. Grab Shaladi too, she's a freshman and it’s time for her to be out in the field. I should be there in about 30 minutes. No one talks to anyone until they talk to us.”

He hung up, put the phone back in his pocket, and sighed.

“Just tell me that a cop isn't dead.” Liv said.

“He's in surgery and we have no idea which way the pendulum will swing. He was shot three times. But this wasn’t some traffic stop gone awry or someone out to get cops. This was a domestic dispute with someone else’s wife in a district he doesn’t work in with his partner and another cop. This was absolute fuckery.”

“Yeah, you don’t tend to get calls for unicorns and rainbows.”

“I'd rather be with you, baby, believe me.” Ed wrapped both arms around her waist. They were outside but didn’t have much time. Cole probably turned on an egg timer the second he hung up the phone. “I had plans this evening for a very thorough seduction. There would be food and kissing and I was going to touch you everywhere my hands could reach.”

“You don’t get to tease me with things that aren’t going to happen.” 

“They absolutely will happen. Just not when I planned, which was approximately a half hour from now.”

“You have to work.” Liv reasoned though she hated that he was leaving. It wasn’t just about the seduction, which would be as good as always. It was Saturday and often she and Noah would spend the night at Ed’s and then do Sunday brunch. Sometimes Ed’s kids would join them or it would just be the three of them. It was Olivia’s favorite part of the week.

“I’ll call when I'm done.” He tilted her chin upward and kissed her. “I'd love it if you and Noah could still spend the night but I might go kinda late. There will just be Cait for brunch tomorrow but she likes you.”

“Yes.” Liv nodded.

“To which part?” Ed asked.

“All of it.” She smiled and kissed him again. “Just be careful out there.”

“Always, baby. Text me when you get home safely.”

Liv nodded, and even though neither of them wanted to they knew they had to go their separate ways. Managing to leave each other’s arms, Ed’s hand lingered in her with their fingers laced for just a little longer. The yearning in her belly, missing him even though he was hardly gone, those were feelings that Olivia hadn’t felt in too long to remember. The fact that she was feeling them for Ed Tucker was mind blowing. For the most part, Liv had stopped trying to talk herself out of it. It was good. The most unexpected thing in her hectic, insane, and sometimes downright traumatic life was so good.

“I will.” She quickly kissed him, let go of his hand, and walked away from the storefront. 

Fuck work! Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it! Ed wanted to be with Liv, sweating up a storm between cool sheets. He wanted to be laughing, moaning, and talking. He wanted to run his fingers through her hair and feel her fingers down his spine. And later on, when their want of each other and a decent meal was quelled, he wanted to hang out on his couch with Noah and Ronin watching cartoons. 

It was Saturday and there were plenty of IAB detectives who could've been called out for a variety of things. For this apparent clusterfuck they wanted the best and the highest up on the ladder they could go. Jim Duffy was the captain but had been in the process of retiring for almost a year. Tucker was doing everything. It wasn’t that he minded; he'd been married to his job from the moment he stepped through the door. 

Ed never thought there would be something with an even stronger pull in his life. He would go, do what he had to and do it right. There was a chance it could go well into Sunday morning depending on how it all went down. Liv would be sleeping in her bed alone but he would spend every minute he could thinking about her.

***

He knew it was late but he sent the text to his daughter anyway. She was a teenager and was most likely still awake. ‘ _Moving brunch back from one to two, same place. Love you much_ ’. Ed sighed, lighting a second cigarette as he sat on the stoop of his apartment. The rain had just begun to fall; thunder had been rumbling in the distance for at least an hour.

He didn’t care much about getting wet. The night was long and tiresome and he needed this. Ed had been to three boroughs, two hospitals, and talked to a ton of people. He put his rookie, Camilla Shaladi, on her first assignment and watched her shine. She was a good cop and was excited to come up under his tutelage. Ed had mentees…how crazy was that? 

After a decade or so of everyone hating to see him coming, it was actually kind of nice to have two or three younger cops looking to him for guidance. Strange, but nice too. He knew Camilla would go very far someday and he wanted to be there to help. She kicked ass out in the field today; Ed had to hold back the strong papa bear feelings he never expected to emerge from seeing her do that.

Taking one last puff, he crushed the cigarette under his shoe and then went into the apartment. Tonight the stairs looked like a mountain but Ed climbed them anyway and let himself in with the key. In the kitchen, the range light was on but the living room was dark. In the long hallway leading to Sean’s room and the bathroom, the hall light was on but both rooms were dark. 

Ed grew up in a town where it could get so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. He was fond of lights to this day because of it. He immediately noticed the lamp was on in his bedroom and the door to the half-bedroom beside it was cracked but not closed. That, along with Ronin not coming out to greet him, made Ed’s heart leap into his throat. Liv was here, she had to be.

Ed walked over and peeked into the half bedroom and sure enough, Noah was sound asleep in the crib. Ed bought the crib so that he and Liv could spend nights together and she never had to worry about Noah. He'd moved all of his exercise equipment, which he didn’t use much anyway, and turned the room into a nursery for the toddler. He had a crib, a small dresser, and a bookshelf. Nothing else could fit into the space. 

Ronin was asleep in front of the crib, keeping watch like he always did when Noah stayed over. Smiling at his luck, Ed blew Noah a goodnight kiss and then walked into his bedroom. She was lying on his bed reading from her tablet. She was wearing his tee shirt and her panties. Her hair was pulled up and she wore her glasses. It was kind of a fantasy and he couldn’t help the weary smile that spread across his face. Whatever that one thing he’d done to get luck like this later in his life, Ed was grateful to have done it.

“Hey there.” Liv smiled too.

“You are a sight for sore eyes.”

“I thought you might need a little love tonight, Lieutenant. Noah’s asleep in the nursery.”

“I saw the door was cracked, that’s how I knew you were here.” Ed said. “Baby, I can't even put into words how happy I am to see you.”

“C'mere.” She called him over with her finger.

Ed kicked off his shoes, walked across the room, and crawled into his bed. He let out a long sigh before curling up and putting his head in Liv’s lap. To say he purred like a lazy cat as she stroked his hair would be an understatement.

“It was an absolute clusterfuck.” He mumbled. “I've seen some really fucked up things during my time in IAB but this might take the cake.”

“You're home now.” Liv stroked his hair and his shoulders. “I want you to let it all go and just breathe.”

“I'm really happy to see you, baby. I know I shouldn’t have been but I was feeling some type of way that I want going to have to sleep alone tonight. Job snatched the rug right from under me.”

“I bet being wrong never felt so good.” She bent to kiss his neck.

“It hasn’t ever. Tonight it’s the best feeling in the world. You're the best feeling in the world.”

“Is the officer who was shot going to be alright?” Liv asked.

She knew they couldn’t talk much about his work. And the truth was that she wasn’t with Ed to do that. She would be alright never talking about Internal Affairs and dirty cops. Ed didn’t make much conversation about it and that was fine. But Liv knew a cop was shot today and even if it had nothing to do with being in the line of duty it was still something that concerned her. 

Apparently, it was a clusterfuck; she heard that much this afternoon. It was probably something that would drive Ed crazy even if it could be resolved quickly. So she wanted to be there to ease his crazy. That’s what girlfriends did. And even though they weren't really labeling and making a big deal of everything, Liv was Ed’s girlfriend.

“He's out of surgery but the doctors want to monitor him for at least 72 hours before declaring him out of the woods. The estranged wife was there, her sister…Liv, I was in an episode of Maury Povich for at least 2 hours today.”

“You poor thing. What can I do to make it better?”

A million things flashed through Ed’s mind, some of them incredibly dirty. It was actually nice to have dirty thoughts about such a woman. Not that he hadn’t had a stray one or two way before Olivia decided he was human enough to talk to. But knowing that she was his woman now just made it even better. She would probably punch him if he ever called her his woman aloud.

“You're here.” Ed sat up and looked at her. He took her face in his hands, giving her a long kiss. Ed liked it so much he did it one more time. “I'm not entirely sure I have the right to ask for anything else.”

“Give it a go, Teddy bear. We might be thinking about the same thing.”

He leaned to whisper in her ear. He was thinking about something and it was romantic and sexy and he wanted it so much but it was also late and he was tired and surely she was tired so Ed wasn’t sure if going there was the best idea. Actually going there would be fabulous; bringing it up might be tricky. But he decided to go for it anyway because why the hell not. Everything that had happened with Olivia thus far had been because Ed had a ‘why the hell not’ moment. May as well keep the ball rolling.

“You have to tell me.” Liv pulled his shirt from his jeans and began to unbutton it. “Do you want me to scrub your back and wash you hair or do you just want to fuck until one of us cries?”

“I think the latter sounds really nice.” Ed replied, shaking the shirt off his shoulders. “I just want to make love to you, baby.”

“I’ll run the water.” Liv kissed him and then climbed off the bed. “You get undressed. Bubbles or not?”

“Yes,” he nodded and smiled. “Bubbles sound perfect. All of it sounds perfect.”

Liv turned, sashaying into the bathroom. Ed fell over on the bed and could hardly believe this was happening to him. It had been four months since their first official date but 8 since the drink. Ed didn’t know if Liv was counting and they were about to be too busy to ask. He knew she had been in a rather serious relationship over a year ago, even though it was difficult for him to take anything involving Brian Cassidy seriously. 

It seemed to have been a long time since either had surrendered to something good; just feeling its goodness from the moment it began. There had been hurdles and missteps, life sometimes came at you fast, but this was so satisfying. It was fun and funny and sexy and warm and Ed wanted to experience it every second of everyday. There was a word for that but he wasn’t going to blurt it out just yet. Taking it slow was a good thing but in your 50s there was slow and then there was ‘I'm only getting older here, if its right then let's do it’. 

Ed knew which one he wanted. He needed to talk to Liv about what she was thinking. Except tonight there wouldn’t be much talking. That suited him just fine. They had time; he would make time. He would make all the time in the world for her, and Noah, if need be.

***


End file.
